This year’s Orbiter Series kicks off for 2018 with the Texas premiere of the SciFi/Horror flick IT CAME FROM THE DESERT on Wednesday, May 23 (7:30pm) at Flix Brewhouse.

This year, we are introducing a new program for our Orbiter Series, the FREQUENT FLIER CLUB. This year we will present six monthly screenings at Flix Brewhouse, May-October. Anyone attending five of the six Orbiter screenings will be eligible for an exclusive T-shirt at the festival this year, available only to the Frequent Fliers.

Just stop by the table in the lobby at each screening to check in, and we’ll stamp the card, turn in the card at the October Screening, and you’ll have a shirt waiting for you at the festival.

A nostalgic tribute to creature features from the 1950's, IT CAME FROM THE DESERT is a pulpy, action monster movie, inspired by Cinemaware's cult 1980’s video game of the same name. It features rival motocross heroes and heroines, kegger parties in the desert, secret underground military bases, romantic insecurities... and of course giant ants.

Marko Mäkilaakso (WAR OF THE DEAD) directed and co-wrote with Hank Woon (AGE OF DINOSAURS) and Trent Haaga (68 KILL). Finland’s Roger! Pictures partnered with US-based legendary game developer Cinemaware to produce a motion picture adaptation of the classic 80’s game "It Came From the Desert."

“This film is classic matinee monster madness,” says Bears Fonté, OWA Founder and Artistic Director. “Harkening back to the early days where Roger Corman would just take whatever and make it larger than man, it shows that even now, and dripping with humor as IT CAME FROM THE DESERT does, the same fears exist: that men use science to tamper with nature in ways they shouldn’t. And this time, nature is six legs of lethal.”

The 1989 action-adventure game It Came from the Desert was inspired by dozens of 1950s "B" movies, especially the 1954 mutant-ant classic THEM!. The title references the 1953 horror film, IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE.

As we count down the days until the special screening of IT CAME FROM THE DESERT, some of the Other Worlds staff will present their favorite films based on an original video game. Next up is Programmer & Screenplay Supervisor Eric Harrelson, who waxes poetic on MORTAL KOMBAT!

By ERIC HARRELSON - It will surprise absolutely none of you to know that I am a fan of video games. I am not above spending a few hours of my leisure time tromping through Winderhold or liberating Columbia from The Prophet. Some modern games like BIOSHOCK INFINITE or SPEC OPS: THE LINE have interesting and creative plots that outshine a lot of what is coming out of Hollywood these days. Video games can be a place for clever and poignant storytelling that is on par with existentialist films of Kubrick or Tarkovsky. But this? This is not one of those places. This is MORTAL KOMBAT!

I don’t feel as if I need to introduce MORTAL KOMBAT to

any of you. If you have even a cursory knowledge of video games in the past 25 years you know MORTAL KOMBAT. Back in the early-mid 90’s it did cause quite a splash. The extreme violence drew the attention of the establishment back in those days. Particularly the fatalities, which were both insanely over-the-top things, like ripping an opponent's head off and holding it aloft while blood dripped from the dangling spine, and also way too complicated to actually pull off in game. I remember Janet Reno had a particular distaste for the game, claiming the violence damaged children and blah-di-blah-di-blah. Which, of course, solidified the game as a pop culture phenomenon. It spawned numerous sequels and imitators, popped up as parodies and references on television, and of course, was turned into a movie franchise. Because if there’s one thing Hollywood loves, it’s an already successful property with a built-in fan base.

Read the rest of Eric’s blog →

By Don Elfant — To get y'all ready for the TEXAS PREMIERE of IT CAME FROM THE DESERT, we've compiled a list of ALL-TIME CREATURE FEATURES!!! Don't miss the first film in our 2018.

Street Fighter

By REID LANSFORD — I remember the hype around it being pretty big, but would only see it later on video, as my parents wouldn’t take me to see it in the theater. Patient though they were (they indulged multiple viewings of BATMAN FOREVER the following summer) life was simply too short to spend 90 minutes watching a film version of STREET FIGHTER.

Resident Evil

By MARK MARTINEZ — In 1998, horror fanatics scoured the World Wide Web and fanzines for any crumb of information they could get on some huge news… George A. Romero was making a new zombie movie! In the history of “what could’ve beens” this ranks high on the list in the horror genre… as it never came to fruition.

Bloodrayne

By BEARS FONTE — There are guilty pleasures and then there are Uwe Boll movies. For some reason, in the aughts Boll became the defacto go-to for video game film adaptations, having done pretty terrible film versions of HOUSE OF THE DEAD and ALONE IN THE DARK. Notwithstanding, I will argue to the end of my days how fricking bat-shit awesome BLOODRAYNE is.